Garuda is safe, says Soepandi
Garuda is safe, says Soepandi
FUKUOKA, Japan (Agencies): Garuda Indonesia's President Soepandi yesterday defended the airline's safety record after a fiery DC-10 crash, but promised more Japanese-speaking stewardesses after complaints about evacuation procedures.
Soepandi, who flew in yesterday to handle the crisis, said Garuda had had no accident on flights between Japan and Indonesia for 33 years, Reuters reported.
Investigators of the takeoff crash of the DC-10, packed with mainly Japanese holidaymakers, said they would focus on engine trouble as a possible cause.
The airliner, bound for Denpasar and Jakarta with 275 people aboard, crashed on takeoff from Fukuoka airport on Thursday, killing three passengers and injuring 110.
Police identified the dead as Masakatsu Okuda, 68, Koichi Imamura, 39, and Masatoshi Yoshida, 44, all of Fukuoka. Of the 260 passengers aboard, 256 were Japanese, two Indonesian, one North Korean and one South Korean.
Indonesia's Ambassador to Japan Wisber Loeis expressed regret over the accident, Kyodo reported.
The ambassador said in a statement that he wishes "to express the deepest concern and sympathy to the passengers who have suffered from loss and injuries".
Meanwhile, police raided the local Garuda office yesterday on suspicion that the deaths and injuries in the crash resulted from "professional negligence", police spokesman Hisaya Takahara said.
Police also seized documents at Garuda's operation office at the airport without specifying possible suspects in the case.
The investigators were keen to know why pilot Ronald Longdong, 38, had to halt the takeoff even though there was little room left for such a maneuver on the runway, press reports said.
The DC-10 is powered by three engines, one on each wing and the third on the rear fin.
"The engine was in good condition when it left Jakarta. That fact is proved as the craft flew smoothly to Fukuoka," Soepandi said after visiting the crash site.
"There are GE (General Electric Co.) technicians working with us at Garuda, so we couldn't have missed an improvement in the engines," he told a news conference.
Indonesian Director General for Air Transportation Zainudin Sikado also came with Soepandi to lead the investigation.
A team of six U.S. officials were to arrive today to join in the investigations, Japanese transport officials said.
Fukuoka police said one Garuda flight attendant had told them that the starboard engine caught fire just after takeoff.
"Engine number three (the starboard engine) was on fire as soon as the plane left the ground," police quoted the unidentified flight attendant as saying. "The pilot applied emergency brakes but it was too late."
Police said they had not finished hearing from the passengers and crew and had not reached any conclusion. Earlier, police and passengers said the port engine had caught fire. The rear engine also had an unexplained gaping hole.
"Yes we will pay attention to reports of a possible engine failure," said Yoshiro Nakatsuji, head of the Japanese Transport Ministry's Airplane Accident Investigation Committee.
Nakatsuji said the Digital Data Flight Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder -- the "black boxes" -- had been retrieved from the aircraft and sent to the Transport Ministry in Tokyo for analysis.
Passengers said they had fled flames engulfing the fuselage in near panic. Some accused flight attendants of not guiding them safely out through emergency chutes.
Soepandi vowed to increase the number of Japanese-speaking flight attendants to fend off criticism from some survivors of confusion during the evacuation. "Garuda will increase the number of flight attendants who can speak Japanese."
The aircraft's chief steward earlier acknowledged that he could not warn Japanese passengers of trouble because he did not speak their language.
Chanisan Hisyan gave an account of the nightmare-like scene in the cabin -- luggage flying around, smoke cutting visibility to near zero and most passengers unaware of what was happening.
"I could only give the warning of what was happening in English and Indonesian," Hisyan told a news conference.
In Jakarta, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto praised the Garuda crew for safely evacuating the passengers under difficult circumstances.
"They worked just like at the training center. They were also capable of working together with the rescue team of the Fukuoka airport in the evacuation effort," Haryanto was quoted by Antara as saying.
The Garuda office in Jakarta said 12 people from the crashed plane were still in hospitals. Pilot Longdong is in Kimura Surgery Hospital while his copilot Yudhia Putra is at Kyuhu University hospital. The other 10 were all Japanese passengers.